Man held in killing of woman. Suspect sought in 2nd slaying. Woman found dead on lot.

City police last night arrested a 32-year-old handyman and charged him with the stabbing death of an elderly northwest woman whose body was found yesterday morning in the kitchen of her apartment in the 3500 block of Clarks Lane.

Sgt. Steven A. Lehmann of the homicide squad said the accused, Donald Gene Davis, of the 3200 block of W. Belvedere Ave., was arrested at his home about 7:20 p.m. yesterday without incident by Detectives William Ritz and Michael Crutchfield.

Lehmann said Davis, who worked full time for a contractor and did odd jobs for the victim, Jeanette Friedman, 75, was charged with first-degree murder, theft and using a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony.

Lehmann said Davis was held overnight without bail at the Northwestern police district pending a bail review hearing today before a District Court judge.

In unrelated homicides, Baltimore police are seeking the person who shot Donte Dewayne Cooper, 19, of the 3900 block of Norfolk Ave. on Friday night, and Baltimore County police are seeking to identify a woman whose body was found about 10 p.m. Saturday on a dirt parking lot near the Diamond Ridge Golf Course.

Friedman, a widow who drove her own car and was independent, reportedly hired Davis to paint her apartment and to do other odd jobs.

"We thought she may have known her killer," Lehmann said, "since there was no sign of forced entry and no ransacking."

Lehmann said Friedman's body was found by her son who became worried when he couldn't reach his mother.

Lehmann said that when Friedman's son got no answer after he phoned Saturday evening and Sunday morning, he went to his mother's apartment around 9:30 a.m. yesterday and found her dead on the kitchen floor.

Lehmann said she had been stabbed in the chest, back and throat. The knife, which has not been recovered, is believed to have been one of several in the victim's kitchen. Lehmann said Friedman's purse also had not been found.

"We believe the woman was killed for her purse," said Lehmann.

Cooper was killed in the 3200 block of Oakfield Ave. as he sat behind the wheel of a 1990 Chevrolet Cavalier. Although he was shot several times, police said, he was able to drive the car down Oakfield Avenue to the 3900 block of Norfolk Ave., where he crashed into a chain-link fence.

Cooper, whose 20th birthday would have been Saturday, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said that his death appeared to be drug-related. No arrests have been made.

In Baltimore County, a man walking along the 7500 block of Dogwood Road found the body of an unidentified woman who had been shot at least once in the face, police said. Her body was taken to the state medical examiner's office in Baltimore, where an autopsy was scheduled today.

Police described the woman as black, in her 20s, about 5-feet-10 and 150 pounds. She had a ponytail and wore stone-washed jeans and a long-sleeve red T-shirt with the words "Ewing Adidas" on the front. She also wore a waist-length windbreaker with black sleeves and stripes on the front, police said.